Vitamin E and diabetic nephropathy in mice model and humans

Figure 5 Increased mesangial collagen IV and smooth muscle actin in haptoglobin 2-2 diabetes mellitus mice. A: Increased mesangial collagen IV in haptoglobin (Hp) 2-2 diabetes mellitus (DM) mice. Quantitation of the immunostaining area was reported in % area of the glomeruli. All values are expressed as means SE (30 glomeruli for each animal). There was a significant increase in collagen IV immunostaining (%) in Hp 2-2 DM vs Hp 1-1 DM mice (P < 0.001) and Hp 2-2 non-DM mice (P < 0.001). There was a significant decrease in collagen IV immunostaining area in Hp 2-2 DM mice with vitamin (Vit)-E (P < 0.05); B: Increased smooth muscle actin in Hp 2-2 DM mice. Immunohistochemical identification of smooth muscle actin (orange-red) was performed using a monoclonal antibody to mouse smooth muscle actin . All values are expressed as mean ± SE. Quantitation of actin staining was performed similar to collagen (as% of glomerular area) with a highly significant increase in actin staining in Hp 2-2 DM mice vs Hp 1-1 DM mice (P < 0.001) and Hp 2-2 non-DM mice (P < 0.001). There was a significant decrease in actin staining in Hp 2-2 DM mice treated with vitamin E (Vit-E) (P < 0.001).